It has been determined that it would be desirable to provide a food product with an insert article such that the food product can be manipulated or partially eaten so as to completely expose and release the insert article.
In one embodiment of such a product contemplated by the inventors, the insert article is a non-food material, such as a strip of paper, which may be imprinted with design, pictorial, or textual subject matter. For example, the strip of paper could be provided on one side with a question and on the other side with the answer to the question. If the food material containing the paper strip is a snack-type food material, such a product could be served in those social situations where food and/or drinks are typically served (e.g., home entertainment of guests, restaurant dining, cocktail bar and tavern settings, etc.).
A conventional fortune cookie typically contains a slip of paper with a "fortune" printed thereon. The conventional fortune cookie completely surrounds the slip of paper with a convoluted shell-like structure that defines an interior hollow space. Typically, at least portions of the slip of paper are substantially loose in the cookie.
Since each conventional fortune cookie necessarily contains a relatively large amount of "empty space" around the strip of paper, the ratio of the fortune cookie mass to the fortune cookie volume is relatively low. Thus, on a weight (mass) basis, packaging and storage of fortune cookies is relatively inefficient.
Further, the convoluted shell-like structure of the conventional fortune cookie typically requires that the fortune cookie be broken into a number of pieces by hand in order to expose the paper strip containing the fortune. This necessarily results in the formation of a number of fortune cookie pieces and crumbs.
It would be desirable to provide a comestible product containing an insert article in a configuration having a greater mass-to-volume ratio than found in a conventional fortune cookie. This would facilitate more efficient packaging and storage. As a result, there would be a decrease in packaging and transportation costs as measured on a unit mass (weight) basis.
Further, it would be beneficial if such an improved product could be made from, inter alia, dough suitable for pre-dinner or between meal snacks.
Additionally, it would be especially desirable to provide such an improved product with a structure and configuration that would accommodate the manufacture of the product on a high speed, high volume basis.
Further, it would be beneficial if such an improved product had a structure and configuration that could readily accommodate removal of the insert article with little or no breakage so as to minimize the formation of pieces and crumbs. It would also be desirable if such a structure and configuration could readily accommodate manufacture in a convenient "snack" size for ease of handling and eating.